Employee and public radiation safety

In addition to the safety, health and environmental risks all mining and chemical processing companies manage, our operations also manage risks related to radiation.

Radiation protection at a uranium mine is accomplished by:

• reducing the time spent around radiation sources
• increasing the distance between workers and radiation sources
• placing a shield between employees and radiation sources
• ventilating the workplace to provide clean air and remove potentially harmful radon and dust.

The goal of these measures is to reduce exposures to as low as reasonably achievable. Some of our mining methods (for example, raiseboring in combination with groundfreezing) maximize the distance between workers and potential sources of radiation. Where those methods are not used, we find other ways to reduce and limit exposures.

We measure and monitor levels of radiation at all of our industrial workplaces (except Cobourg, where there is no uranium present) and we record and monitor the personal exposures of employees and contractors. Monitoring methods include dosimeters (devices designed to measure certain types of radiation), air monitoring, and internal dosimetry techniques like urinalysis and lung counting (direct measurement of any radioactive material that may be present in the lungs).

Our sites also have joint employee-management health and safety committees that are responsible for implementing our corporate health and safety management system.

Industry regulation and oversight

We comply with all international declarations, conventions and treaties that relate to our businesses. In Canada, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) provides oversight of our operations, along with provincial regulators. In the United States, we are regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and state regulatory bodies.

Following the events in Japan in 2011, the CNSC asked us to review the risk management and emergency preparedness processes at all our Canadian sites. Third-party experts carried out these reviews and concluded that the system in place at our operations – our five layers of defence – provides an effective barrier against the potential effects of a natural disaster. Similar assessments were also conducted at our US operations.

We are continuously looking to further improve our designs, practices, policies and plans to keep workers and the public safe, including during transportation of our materials.